Ah, Deltarune. Even moreso than Silksong, it’s the big project that’s got everyone on tenterhooks. Oh, and both games have a compound neologism for a title.

(Art By Me, one rainy afternoon)

I will be frank – while I’m certainly not part of the main fandom or blindly adore the series, I do like Toby Fox in moderation. Spamton, as I have said before, is possibly one of the greatest character designs of all time. Making the most of toby foxes love of eccentric personalities, ALLCAPS(!!!), pop cultural references and franchise callbacks, he has supplanted the previous “secret boss” (Jevil) in terms of popularity. Enhypened(?) for the next installment and inspired to put their own imaginations to the test, numerous artists within the community have been putting their creativity and rational to the test with trying to predict the next (or subsequent) secret “freedom” bosses.

No exaggeration when I say that there’s hundreds of the buggers: some based purely on the artist’s favourite obsession/OCs, others with more solid groundwork behind them (e.g. Memory-head theory, “Friend in me” leak), some simply created to go along with a toby-fox styled track (e.g. Skuntle Bingoid). My personal favourite has to be Radiola by Modtro64: going along with the “forgotten equipment” thematic, I love her 1950’S Jetston character style and her proposed roles in the story (E.g. joining the party for a while), even if she isn’t as ambitious as [[THE BIG ONE]].

(Art by The Winterer, original character by Modtro64)

While all of these designs are supposed to compliment Toby Fox’s style, ultimately all carry the distinct thumbprint of the creator – something that isn’t inherently bad. In fact, I feel sorry for the bloke: when he finally releases the next boss, it’s going to be measured up against everyone else’s expectations. No doubt some may be disappointed. On the other hand, these fan designs will likely fade as the actual project trundles towards completion and his actual candidates, whether really more inventive or not, will take centre stage. Still, as a creative exercise, it’s all a good bit of fun. Innat all matters, at the end of the day?

A really rough, rather unorthodox design for a Deltarune secret boss – Charlie “Radiator” Fox

Since I’ve been doin’ a fair whack of pixel art lately, I decided to have my own [[BIG!!]] shot at making a freedom themed boss for deltarune. Introducing:

Charlie “Radiator” Fox. (Art by me. Feel free to plagiarise.)

Charlie here is a dark’ner residing in the archive depths of the Librarby-Er, “Library”, albeit not the computer room (Chapter 2).A caricature of an old Human Politician who supported the Monsters in their revolution with humanity, this preventing them from being subjugated and sealed underground as with Undertale. Since the humans weren’t fond of this noble man’s sympathies, they portrayed him as a blustering, bumbling lout – even so, the nobility and compassion of the originator is still evident within this fool.

Now, he doesn’t seem openly “Enlightened” at first like many other secret boss designs – he hardly interacts with the normal story, being a recurrent albeit minor NPC snooping around the hall. He does try and help you during the raid on the “fortress” of the area, but gets quickly bonked aside. In fact, he doesn’t even seem like a conventional Deltarune character given his verbose babbling and references to classical parodies (e.g. Guzzler’s travels, A pillbug’s progress, Foamio and serviette etc).

However…Then there is the weird route.

Should you be compelled to cruelly derail the story, be it with poor Noelle or some other poor sap, you drive the cowardly man into the depths of the archive…where he stumbles upon untold knowledge. With this new insight and bolstered courage, Charlie rushes back to bar your murder spree, but no longer as the sweaty oaf he once was.

He has become the liberator!

(Art by me again, further ripping of James Gillray!)

Battle against the liberator – Crimes against humanity.

Charlie fights you just before the dark fountain.Unlike spamton, he doesn’t seem to know that he’s restricted by code: unlike Jevil, he doesn’t know the world is all a game – however, he knows of the force known as the player. Having executed the original tyrant of this place, he condemns you directly for forcing the Delta-warriors to commit such terrible deeds. He vows to “liberate” the world from your control so that everyone, lightner or darkner, can do as they please – in order to do this, he must destroy Kris’ “”soul””.

Charlies’ attacks are all based off the grandiose absurdities of regency caricatures. Fitting the colours of “Liberty”, your soul type alternates between turns: Red one attack, blue the next and every third attack you become “prone” white: you will gain the moveset of either the blue or red soul, but can only tell this from an visual glint in Charlie’s teeth. When prone, you will also take double damage from attacks.

• Some attack have him summon the zodiac to assail you. (See [[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-10394]]) Sagittarus fires arrows, Scorpio hops into a boot and tries to stomp you, Tauros smashes up a china store etc etc. Someone has probably made a zodiac themed boss already – know that I haven’t intended to rip anyone off here! Later into the fight, two of each zodiac can work together, often layering on top of the Revolutionary attacks or indoctrinated with the wine below.
• Some attacks have the screen slowly fill up with wine, contact with which won’t hurt you but instead reverse controls as if drunk.
• A lot of attacks have highly revolutionary imagery. Pitchforks sweep by, carrying heads who spit damaging curses (e.g. zounds, gadzook etc). Guillotines sweep up and down. Torches whizz by and flames erupt from bonfires. This might sound a tad violent for the undertale series, yet remember this game can get pretty dark at times. Besides, many fanbosses are more extreme!
• Another attack has Charlie swing his axe like Asgore’s scythe attack; swapping between orange and blue swiped with the order of the attacks being dictated by his eye glint. Sounds boring, eh? Well, a clock dial appears above CJF as he does this, moving clockwise throughout the sequence. The second time he uses this attack, the clock will chime half way through the sequence; the dial will then motion backwards and CJF will go through the sequence backwards. The fourth time he uses this attack is a real nasty shock – The clock will chime again after reversing, skipping back to the midway point (e.g. 6 o’clock) to continue the latter half of the forwards sequence! Sounds bloody complicated, I know, but it’s supposed to be hard!
• Of course, this regency caricature barrage wouldn’t be complete without some scatological pun! One attack has you dodge crap floating down the river alongside rotten apples – each object has orange-y stench trailing it (e.g. damage if motionless) with some orbitted by aggressive flies. Ref [[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0901-1018]]
• CJF’s special attack invokes the blue soul. The screen expands out to oblivion and you are suddenly confronted by CJF riding astride a ferocious BUGABOO!!! ([[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-6209]]) Your heart will then try to flee, sprouting legs and running like a certain other blue streak! Charlie will chase you through an autoscroll obstacle course before a speeding carriage pulled by the annoying dog smashes the bugaboo and ends the attack.

Now, what of the win conditions?

• Fighting charlie is not straightforward – ironic for his speech about freedom, he erects magical bars around you to stop you from attacking him! To get at him, you must ACT. Filing down the bars takes time, with Charlie’s attacks becoming more aggressive with progress with his special attack coinciding with the bars collapse.
• Normal “murder” route simply recquires you to whittle down his mediocre health pool. His last ditch is thwarted, much like spamton, by your soul leaving kris to possess Charlie, forcing him to jump into the dark fountain as you seal it, killing him and granting you his Shadow crystal. His genocide equipment is the executioner’s hat: every time you kill an enemy, your party gains a +50% heal. If one of your allies becomes unconscious, however, you will gain an increase in attack power. A bit complicated for an item.
• The Pacifist route is arguably even more complicated – after the bars collapse, checking the boss reveals that there’s nothing stopping you from fleeing. Attempting to retreat will have you get stuck in yet another cage, but Charlie will stop fudging around. He’ll offer instead to “redeem” the soul, revealing himself to be vaguely aware of the other timelines/save files.If the player resets chapter 3 at this stage, they will be granted the third shadow crystal on starting again. Also, if they proceed with the run normally hence after, a befuddled Charlie will proceed to meet the party after the climax fight to give them a “good luck charm”. This charm is the pacifist brooch: Susie’s own heal ability costs significantly less and heals a little bit more, albeit greatly reducing her attack (a bit like an inverse puppet scarf). This sounds unbelievably convoluted, but given the circumstances you fight Charlie under, it’s not like he’s just going to let you go, is he?

All this junk, excluding the original pixel art and revision, was the crop of one hour of feverish freewriting. It is completely unlike anything Toby would put in his game – I highly doubt he’s interested in Regency politics, let alone dated caricatures or even any culture beyond American/Japanese coverage. Besides, just because it breaks these conventions, I will not pretend that this is good game/character design – frankly, the pacifist option could do with some work and the character themselves is ripped off a real life politician. (For liberator inspiration, see [[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1983-U-194]])

But you know what? This was great fun to write and draw, not least because it’s completely off the wall and mired in my own stupid obsessions! Writing shouldn’t be all about dreary academia, lifeless book reviews and, god forbid, awful advice articles! A change, a challenge – it’s good for the mind, good for creativity, good for this blog. If anything, I should do more shindigs like this throughout 2024.

And while we’re on the subject of deltarune, actually…

INSANE NEW DELTARUNE THEORY – GASTER’S ORIGINS!! (Not clickbait)

A lot of people are suspecting that the secret bosses of deltarune and indeed Sans from undertale are traced back to an enigmatic figure called W.D. Gaster: a former royal scientist hinted at in a few rare FUN-value events between both games who effectively ascended to a higher plane of existence and became aware of the game’s programming. If you’re in the community, you no doubt know about him, since no secret can be sacred for long – he’s hardly so much an urban legend as a downright pop culture figure, despite his creator’s insistence of his non-existance.

Now… W.D Gaster’s actual name should be straightforward. W.D. stands for “windings” – the encrypted font that he speaks exclusively in a rare audio log. As for Gaster, the surname likely denotes his “ghastly/ghostly” apperance – people are absolutely insistent he looks like a monochrome spook in a turtleneck (Excluding the alternate long-haired appearance).

(Art by DogBomber.)

However…me and my brother made a bit of a disturbing discovery. W.D. Gaster is not the only intellectual of the name in fiction.

Because we’re pretentious nerds who like historical folklore, we happened upon a renaissance comedy series called “Pantagruel and Gargantua” by François Rabelais. Specifically, we’re referring to the M.A. Screech translation – yes, that’s his actual surname.This story has inspired many modern writers, Louis Carrol whose Wonderland was the inspiration for Dark world chapter 1 in Deltarune, as well as James Joyce. It is a story about a big, jolly but frankly sociopathic giant called Pantagruel who goes off on stupid adventures with his rake friend Panurge.

The fourth book in the series, the last written by Rabelais himself, has Pantagruel go on an expedition to consult the divine bottle to advise his crony on marriage, crossing many typically absurd islands in the process. However, on the penultimate island of the book (pp 831 – 853), he comes across the manor of arete, where he is acquainted with the followers of a great sage and false god…called Messer Gaster!

Like W.D., Messr Gaster is extremely intelligent – he practically invented every weapon and siege engine known to man. Not only that, but he is said to defy reality, with mother nature conspiring to kill him (Pp 849 to 850). If you’re really milking it, his lack of ears also means that his main form communication with his followers (Gastrolaters and Engastrimyths) is using sign language – speaking with his hands.

However.

Messer Gaster is far from boney . In fact, his source of wisdom is much in line with the alternative definition of the name “Gaster”. Gaster, in it’s modern form, is derived from a dissimilation of ancient greek word γρᾰστήρ (Graster), which means GLUTTONY and bears the same roots as Belly! (Wiktionary)

Mr Gaster gains his knowledge from eating prodigious amounts of food stuffed into him by the gastromarges (pp 838 – 847), who interpret the horrible visceral noises of his oversized gut for oracular insight!

(Art by Honoré Daumier – copyright has expired anyway, so he can’t sue me!)

IN OTHER WORDS:

• MR Gaster is both a predecessor to W.D. Gaster AND Monty Python’s Mr Creosote.

THEREFORE:

• By ludricous conflation of this connection, Mr Creosote is therefore Gaster as Sans is Ness!

But hey! It’s just a theory,

A GAME THEORY! Thanks for reading!

Eat your heart out, Matt Patt.